Posted on May 11, 2017
By Thomas Jewell, cleveland.com
The $1.5 million Green Lake dredging project has temporarily run aground as crews await the necessary permits from the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We ran into some snags on the permit that allows the solids from the dredging to be taken to an approved facility,” Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Watershed Programs Director Frank Greenland told City Council Monday.
Upon hearing the news, some residents questioned why the permits weren’t lined up before the roads around the “Duck Pond” were closed two months ago.
This includes sections of Andover and Attleboro roads, along with Parkland Drive, closed to through traffic, with fencing set up around the 6.5-acre lake.
NEORSD officials believe the situation will be resolved soon, allowing the project to continue, with 25,000 cubic yards of sediment to be removed, improving water quality with increased oxygen levels and reduced algae and duckweed blooms.
Contractors and the NEORSD previously agreed not to store any of the excavated silt on site, but transport it immediately to a disposal facility in Bedford.
And it’s unclear how the delay will affect the “substantial completion” date tentatively set for the end of June.
City officials wanted to move quickly on Green Lake’s dredging after the project was delayed for nearly three years from 2013 to 2016 while some communities fought a new NEORSD stormwater assessment fee in court.
The Ohio Supreme Court upheld that fee, which will raise about $41 million a year, with 25 percent of that amount going toward a “Community Cost Share (CCS)” program.
Shaker expects to receive about $200,000 a year that it can earmark for local sewer projects.
With the total local share of $500,000 on the Green Lake dredging, along with dam improvements at Andover Road and Horseshoe and Lower Shaker lakes, Shaker will be paying $100,000 annually for five years with its CCS funds.
Another $500,000 to $750,000 in CCS annual increments is going toward a flood mitigation project in a partnership with the city’s largest employer, the University Hospitals Management Services Center in the Van Aken District.
That leaves Shaker in good standing for the foreseeable future on the Community Cost Share allocations, which have to be used within five years or they are rolled off.
“We have tremendous collaboration and support from the sewer district…” Mayor Earl Leiken
In an hour-long presentation to council at Monday’s council work session, Greenland explained that Shaker has a “mish-mash” of various types of sewers in its system.
This includes a relatively small amount of Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) lines concentrated mostly along the city’s southwestern border with Cleveland.
During heavy rainfalls, CSO systems can discharge raw sewage into streams, rivers and ultimately Lake Erie, which is why they are now prohibited and the NEORSD is working to replace them.
Shaker officials are being encouraged to prioritize projects, which Mayor Earl Leiken noted is already being done in response to flooding that occurred after a major storm in July 2014.
A 10-year infrastructure plan adopted last year also addresses sewers and other capital improvements.
When council members asked about the costs of individual repair and replacement projects, including CSO’s as well as “common trench” sewers that can also lead to contamination of storm run-off, NEORSD officials said they can run from $50,000-$100,000 up to $2 million and over.
Assistant Public Works Director Christian Maier said the city will first look at the projects that amount to “low-hanging fruit,” also noting that up to 50 percent of sewers are on private property.
Another major project being undertaken by NEORSD this year involves the elimination of CSOs along Doan Brook.
Although the Shaker Lakes are part of the Doan Brook Watershed, most of the overflows along the way are in Cleveland.
Responding to questions from Vice Mayor Julianna Johnston Senturia and Councilwoman Nancy Moore, Greenland said that most of the work to fix will take place Rudy Rogers and Ambler parks, and further downstream in University Circle.
Shaker Heights encompasses three watersheds: Doan Brook, which flows into Lake Erie; Kingsbury Run and Mill Creek, both of which are tributaries of the Cuyahoga River.
Source: cleveland.com
